Different buffering parameters are used when transferring media between two devices. For example, different jitter buffer and pre-decoder buffer parameters may be used in a rendering endpoint when buffering media is received from a serving endpoint. The rendering endpoint may send a Buffer Fullness Report (BFR) to the serving endpoint that includes a “Buffer Size” value. The buffer size value may include the size of the jitter and the size of the pre-decode buffer, if any.
However, other buffer information may also need to be communicated between the media serving endpoint and the media rendering endpoint. For example, there is a minimum buffer size (B) and a minimum initial buffer fullness or fill level (F) used for avoiding pre-decoder buffer underflow and overflow for a particular transmission rate (R). This is referred to as leaky bucket model.
There are a number of other scenarios where other buffer parameters may need to be dynamically changed during a media session. For example, wireless home network interference and cross-traffic can cause the amount of jitter to vary considerably between the media serving endpoint and the media rendering endpoint. Accordingly, the rendering endpoint may need to change the jitter buffer size to efficiently handle these jitter fluctuations. However, currently there is no communication protocol/extension that allows the rendering endpoint to communicate these jitter buffer changes to the serving endpoint.
The present invention addresses this and other problems associated with the prior art.